The present invention relates to an earring removal apparatus and, more particularly, to a tool for removing earrings from the display cards that earrings are typically attached to when a customer purchases new earrings.
Throughout the years of recorded history, men and women have been eager to possess and use ornamental jewelry about their clothing and person. Earrings in particular have been used by both sexes, and still are for reasons that are both varied and ornamental. As a result of the attractiveness of the use of earrings, many people, particularly women, make fairly frequent purchases of earrings for the pleasure of variety.
Earrings for pierced ears are, perhaps, the more popular form of earrings worn currently, typically by women, but also by men. Such earrings include an exposed ornamental design which may include a precious stone or metal, and a post or thin elongated shaft extending therefrom. The post is inserted through a previously pierced hole in the ear lobe and, thereafter, held in position in the ear by a retainer which is slid onto the post behind the ear lobe. Most individuals who wear jewelry of this type gradually acquire a collection of different styles and designs of pierced earrings. Sometimes, the purchaser will remove the earrings from the display card as soon as the earrings are purchased, but earrings purchased for a special occasion may be saved on the purchase card until the occasion to wear them arises.
Typically, the purchaser uses their fingers, particularly their fingernails, to grasp the front and back of the earring, and remove same from the purchase card. If earrings have been saved on the display card until the special occasion for wearing the earrings arrives, the purchaser may be completely primped and ready, save for the removal of the earrings from the card. Unfortunately, this activity often nicks or damages ones fingernails. Although a nicked fingernail can be filed back to shape, if the purchaser has a manicure, the damage to the manicure is not easily repaired.
Manicures are part of our popular culture. In fact, one quarter of all American women have regular professional manicures, and even 4 percent of men say they have regular professional manicures. And fully half of American women give manicures to themselves. From a worldwide survey of fourteen hundred people by TripAdvisor asking for their opinions on flying, manicures was one of the top five luxuries travelers would pay extra for. Considering that some salons charge upwards of $75 for a full manicure, this is an investment most people want to protect.
Furthermore, when a user is trying to remove an earring from a purchase card, the earring itself may be damaged if a user is pulling on twisting the parts in an attempt to separate the earring from the purchase card. If one is also trying to preserve a manicure, even more laborious twisting or manual tugging of the parts may occur, actions which do not have a controlled motion, putting ornamentation of the earring itself at risk. For instance, a gem may come off a decorative earring or a delicate filigree might be bent or broken, as the user attempts to extract the earring from the card and also preserve a manicure.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,968, to Sorensen, discloses an apparatus for removing a piercing stud clasp. Specifically, the apparatus requires that it be inserted into the stud clasp, and is expressly for use in removing the clasp while leaving the stud in the ear. This prevents the user from having to re-insert the stud, pushing around in the fatty tissue of the ear lobe to find the opening, which is particularly the case when the piercing is fresh. The Sorensen apparatus is particularly suited, then, for a situation where one is to leave an earring in an ear during a healing period, but one would like to remove the stud to clean and disinfect the stud and the area around the healing lobe—without actually removing the earring. Hence, prongs are proposed to be applied perpendicular to the clasp opening, into the retainer.
There are several inherent disadvantages of the Sorensen apparatus when considering the needs of some earring wearers to remove the earrings from a purchase card without damaging either the earring or a manicure. The Sorensen approach does not address the gentle levering action that might be required to preserve both the ornamental embellishments of an earring and a manicure, since the Sorensen apparatus is applied at the back of the ear, to the stud, rather than to the decorative earring part. The Sorensen apparatus further discloses and claims an action like that of a pair of tongs, whereby as the prongs are fitted perpendicularly into the clasp openings, an opposing force is applied to the end of the protruding stud to push the stud out of the locked position. Even then, the earring is still not separated from the ear, nor would it be separated from a purchase card. At this point in the Sorensen disclosure, if one were to desire to remove the earring from ones ear (or from a purchase card), the disassembly is completed using ones fingers, which, again, could damage ones manicure.
It would be desirable, then, to have a means for removing earrings from a display card which avoids nicking and scratching of ones fingernails and manicure, and is also gentler on the parts of the earring than merely pulling the earring off the card with manual tugging or force. It would also be desirable to have a means for removing an earring from an earring card, whereby the means utilizes a controlled motion or leverage. It would be particularly desirable to be able to controllably detach earrings from a display card while protecting ones manicure, and while protecting delicateness and embellishments of the earring.